New dean to head up innovative teacher training scheme

Published:10:48Tuesday 30 September 2014

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The UK’s first scheme aimed at training teachers specifically for the private sector is to launch next September.

The University of Buckingham is to run the only Independent Postgraduate Certificate in Education (IPGCE) in the country, set up in conjuction with the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), it was announced yesterday, Monday.

Geraint Jones PNL-140930-100730001

HMC chairman Richard Harman announced the new teacher training initiative to the HMC’s annual conference.

Mr Harman said: “It will provide us with a strong voice in recruiting fresh talent.

“Many good people have left teaching because they found themselves spending so much of their time filling in paperwork and trying to hit narrow, sterile performance measures, missing the bigger picture.

“We want to keep good people in teaching by inviting them to work in schools where these things do not predominate.”

Heading up the initiative at the University of Buckingham will be its newly appointed Dean of Education, Geraint Jones.

As the former director of education for Europe’s largest independent school provider, Cognita, Mr Jones’ previous role was to oversee the quality of educational provision in some 50 schools in the UK and abroad.

Mr Jones said: “I am extremely excited about my new role, especially as the department for education at the University of Buckingham has such a strong reputation for delivering high-quality training for teachers and school leaders.”

Prior to taking up the role with Cognita, Mr Jones was the country’s youngest senior independent school headmaster and led Quinton House School in Northants to twice becoming the top-performing school in the county for GCSE results.

An Ofsted-accredited school inspector, Mr Jones has also worked in the state-maintained sector as vice-principal of a large comprehensive school in Wiltshire and has held head of department and modern foreign languages teaching positions in similar schools.

In 2002 Mr Jones founded the acclaimed Wake And Shake programme, an internationally recognised programme of physical education for pupils, now practised in over 3,000 schools across the world.

He has also led school improvement initiatives in the UK and abroad, most notably with Ministries of Education in Singapore and Abu Dhabi.

The University of Buckingham’s education department runs four other postgraduate courses – a Primary PGCE with Teachers’ Standards, a Secondary PGCE with Teachers’ Standards, a Postgraduate Certificate in Middle Leadership and an MEd in Educational Leadership.